kinder gardeners

KINDER GARDENERS

the black composter in the far right of this picture was donated to the
kindergarten class by a fellow alzheimers committee person who had
it at her house and was not using it
so
i set it up in the garden then talked to the kids about composting
using
browns like leaves newspapers cardboard limbs twigs
greens like kitchen scraps egg shells grass clippings weeds veggie trimmings

they put this stuff in the composter
added water
stirred it all up

in fact twice we emptied it all out on cardboard
stirred it real good and put it back in the composter

we added a piece of plastic a log a pine cone also

last week was harvest the compost day at the garden
so
i laid out a row of cardboard
shoveled the compost onto the cardboard
spread it out in a heaping row down the cardboard

the kids surrounded the compost like in the above picture
picked through the compost
removing the worms
removing any big pieces of material
removing the not composted plastic log and pine cone

they harvested about 4-5 5gallon buckets full of some of
the richest compost you would want to put on your garden
so
thats what we did
put it on their garden
all 5 buckets of it

it was their gift to next years class

its interesting to watch the kids especially the ones that were
a little squeamish at first picking up worms or pill bugs or wet
dirty compost
they seemed to be the ones that dug around in the compost
the most

its a good day when they can get their hands dirty
get compost and dirt under their nails
it apparently makes kids more healthy if they do this

so today we will do a similar harvest from their
worm composter

its been a good year
i plan to return next year

what i have learned
can be explained in my statement at the end of my
two hour stint in the garden with 24 kindergartners

how in the world do those kindergartner teachers do
this all day long five days a week

how in the world can they keep that many kids corraled
and do what they want them to do

those kindergartner teachers are a skilled group

its sad that all kids in all grades dont have the opportunity
that these kinder gardeners had this year
planting veggies and herbs
making compost
digging in the dirt and compost
eating what they planted
collecting and understanding how to collect rainwater

yes
its been a good year

the organicgreen doctor